AP Lit Terms

Allegory

Allegory

A literary work that portrays abstract ideas concretely. Characters are frequently personifications of abstract ideas and are given names that refer to these ideas.

Allusion

A reference to another work of literature , or to art, history, or current events.

Analogy

In literature, a comparison between two things that helps explain or illustrate one or both of them.

Anaphora

Repetition of an initial word or words to add emphasis.

Apostrophe

A direct address to an abstraction (such as Time), a thing (the Wind), an animal, or an imaginary or absent person.

Atmosphere

The feeling created by the reader by a work of literature. Can be generated by many things, but especially style, tone, and setting. Synonymous with mood.

Bildungsroman

A novel that explores the maturation of the protagonist, with the narrative usually moving the main character from childhood into adulthood. Also called a coming-of-age story.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, is the most commonly used form in English because it is the form that comes closest to natural patterns of speaking in English.

Carpe diem

A widespread literary theme meaning “seize the day”.

Character

A person in a narrative. While this term generally refers to human beings, it can also include animals or inanimate objects that are given human characteristics.

Characterization

The method by which the author builds, or reveals, a character; it will be direct or indirect.

Climax

The point in a story when the conflict reaches its highest intensity.

Colloquial Language/ Colloquialism

An expression or language construction appropriate only for casual, informal speaking or writing.

Concrete

The term is one that refers to a specific, particular thing, as opposed to a term that refers to a broad concept; opposite of abstract.

Conflict

Then tension, opposition, or struggle drives a plot. Usually arises between the protagonist and the antagonist in a story.

Connotation

Meaning or associations readers have with a word or item beyond its dictionary definition or denotation. May reveal another layer of meaning of a piece, affect the tone, or suggest symbolic resonance.

Denotation

The literal definition of a word, often referred to as the “dictionary definition”.

Dialogue

The written depiction of conversation between characters.

Direct Characterization

Occurs when a narrator tells us when the reader who a character is by describing the background, motivation, temperament, or appearance of a character.

Dramatic irony

Tension created by the contrast between what a character says or thinks and what the audience or readers know to be true; as a result of this technique, some words and actions in a story or play take on a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters.

Dramatic monologue

A type of poem in which the speaker, who is clearly distinct from the poet, addresses an audience that is present in the poem.

Elegy

A contemplative poem, on death and mortality, often written for someone who has died.

Epigram

A short, witty statement designed to surprise an audience or a reader.

Epigraph

A quotation preceding a work of literature that helps set the text’s mood or suggests its theme.

Epiphany

A character’s transformative moment of realization.

Eulogy

A poem, speech, or other work written in great praise of something or someone, usually a person no longer living.

Exposition

In a literary work, contextual and background information told to readers about the characters, plot, setting, and situation.

Extended metaphor

A metaphor that continues over several lines or throughout an entire literary work.

Falling action

In a plot diagram, this is the result of the climax or turning point. In this phase, the conflict is being resolved.

Farce

A dramatic form marked by wholly absurd situations, slapstick, raucous wordplay, and sometimes innuendo.

Figurative language

Language that uses figures of speech; nonliteral language usually evoking strong images.

First-person narrator

Storyteller tells story from their point of view. Uses I, me, my.

Flashback

A scene in a that is set in an earlier time the main action.

Foil

A contrasting character who allows the protagonist to stand out more distinctly.

Foreshadowing

A plot device in which future events are hinted at.

Hubris

An excessive level of pride that leads to the protagonist’s downfall.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point.

Imagery

A description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds.

In medias res

Latin for “in the middle of things,” a technique in which narrative begins in the middle of the action.

Indirect characterization

An author shows rather than tells us what a character is like through what the character says, does, or thinks, or what others say about the character.

Irony, dramatic

Tension created by contrast between what a character says or thinks and what the audience or readers know to be true; as a result of this technique, some words and actions in a story or play take on a different meaning for the reader then they do for the characters.

Irony, situational

A pointed discrepancy between what seems fitting or expected in a story and what actually happens.

Irony, verbal

A figure of speech that occurs when a speaker or character says one thing but means something else, or when what was said is the opposite of what is expected, creating a noticeable incongruity.

Juxtaposition

Placing two things side by side for the sake of comparison or contrast.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that compares or equates two things without using like or as.

Metaphor, extended

A metaphor that continues over several lines or throughout an entire literary work.

Meter

The formal, regular organization of stressed and unstressed syllables, measured in feet. A foot is distinguished by the number of syllables it contains and how stress is placed on the syllables.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is related to it.

Monologue

In a play, a speech given by one person.

Mood

The feeling created for the reader by a work of literature.

Motif

A recurring pattern of images, words, or symbols that reveals a theme in a work of literature.

Narrative frame

Also known as a frame story, a plot device in which the author places the main narrative of his or her work within another narrative.

Narrator

The character, or persona, that the author uses to tell a narrative, or story.

Non sequitur

In literature, a reply or remark that does not have any relevance to what occasioned or preceded it; in rhetoric, a conclusion that does not logically follow from the premises.

Ode

A form of poetry used to meditate on or address a single object or condition.

Omniscient narrator

The all knowing voice in the story.

Omniscient point of view

Told by a narrator using third-person pronouns. This narrator is privy to the thoughts and actions of only one character.

Oxymoron

A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words.

Parable

A tale told explicitly to illustrate a moral lesson or conclusion.

Paradox

A statement that seems contradictory but actually is not.

Parallel structure

Also known as parallelism, this term refers to the repeated use of similar grammatical structures for the purpose of emphasis.

Parody

A comic or satiric imitation of a particular literary work or style. Can run the gamut from lighthearted imitations intended merely to play with something well known, to exaggerations intended to criticize by making a work or literary style look ridiculous.

Passive voice

A sentence employs this when the subject doesn’t act but is acted on.

Personification

A figure of speech in which an animal or an inanimate object is imbued with human qualities.

Plot

The arrangement of events in a narrative. Almost always, a conflict is central and traditionally develops in accordance with the following mode: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. There can be more than one sequence of events in a work, although typically there is one major sequence along with other minor sequences.

Point of View

The perspective from which a work is told.

Protagonist

The main character in a work; often a hero or heroine, but not always.

Pun

A play on words that derives its humor from the replacement of one word with another that has a similar pronunciation or spelling but a different meaning. Can also derive humor from the use of a single word that has more than one meaning.

Resolution

The working out of a plot’s conflicts, following the climax.

Rising action

The events, marked by increasing tension and conflict, that build up to a story’s climax.

Satire

A literary work that uses irony to critique society or an individual.

Setting

Where and when a story takes place.

Setting, social

The manners, mores, customs, rituals, and codes of conduct in a work; an author may suggest approval or disapproval of any of these through a description of place.

Simile

A figure of speech used to explain or clarify an idea by comparing it explicitly to something else, using the words like, as, or as though to do so.

Soliloquy

In a play, a monologue in which a character, alone on the stage, reveals his or her thoughts or emotions.

Speaker

This term is most frequently used in the context of drama and poetry. In drama, the character is currently delivering lines. In poetry, the person who is expressing a point of view in the poem, is either the author or a persona created by the author.

Stanza

Lines in a poem that the poet has chosen to group together, are usually separated from other lines by a space. A poem usually has repetitive forms, often sharing rhyme schemes or rhythmic structures.

Stream of consciousness

A technique in which prose follows the logic and flow of a character’s thought processes - associations, tangents, seemingly strange transitions - rather than a more ordered narrative.

Symbol

A setting, object, or event in a story that carries more than literal meaning of a work of literature.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole.

Theme

Underlying issues or ideas of a work.

Thesis statement

The chief claim that a writer makes in any argumentative piece of writing, usually stated in one sentence.

Tone

A speaker’s attitude is exposed through stylistic choices. A long with mood, this provides the emotional coloring of work and is created by some combination of the other elements of style.

Tragic hero

A character who posses a flaw or commits an error in judgement that leads to his or her downfall and a reversal of fortune.

Understatement

The presentation or framing of something as less important, urgent, awful, good, powerful, and so on, than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect; the opposite of hyperbole.

Vignette

A broad term, verse refers to a piece of writing that is metered and rhythmic. The term can also be used to refer to poetry in general.